Anyone Own the Tormek T-8?

[Ken Schroeder]

I would like to submit another opinion about the Tormek T4. I would especially like to bring this to the attention of any members using wheelchairs.

I have used a T4 since soon after it was introduced. I have also used a T7 since 2009, and a T8. I like the T4. It is a much better machine than commonly believed by those who have not actually used one. I like it because of its compact size and lighter weight. It does not come with a straight edge jig or diamond dressing tool. Therefore, I have never factored lower cost in with my T4 opinion.

I also do not factor in the nonsense about the 50% duty of the motor. The overheating issue with the older T3 was caused by the all plastic housing. It retained the motor heat and caused overheating problems. Tormek corrected the problem with the machined zinc top of the T4 housing. The zinc top acts like a radiator. I have run my T4 for several hours and never noticed a heat problem. The T4 carries a solid seven year warranty.

The T4 weighs half of what the larger Tormeks weigh. My mind tells me the smaller diameter grinding wheel produces more hollow grind, but my eyes don't notice a difference. Incidentally, the T4's wheel, 200mm or 8", is the same diameter as the better dry grinders, with a wider grinding surface. All of the Tormek jigs work with the T4. The handbook is the same, as are most of the parts. The shaft is slightly shirter, but shares the same 12mm diameter.

In a large shop with a permanent sharpening station, the larger, heavier Tormek is king. In a smaller shop, where a Tormek may be moved, a mobile shop, or for an older user, the lightweight, compact T4 is a joy to use. Yes, the grinding wheel may have a shorter life, but the cost is just over half the cost of a larger wheel for replacement. Tormek recently redesigned the turning gouge jig. Among other improvements, it works better with the T4.

I recently purchased a D-Way 180 grit CBN wheel for my T4. It makes a fine sharpening machine into a respectable reshaping machine.

I like and use both the T7 and T8. However, my favorite Tormek is my T4.

Ken

[Marty Schlosser]

Mike,

Are you sure you're talking of the T-8 version, as it's only been around for a very short time? I think you're confusing it with the T-7 or perhaps the cheaper version, the T-4.

It's obvious you didn't know how to use the Tormek to properly use the side of the wheel to flatten the back of chisels or plane irons. What's wrong with perfect flatness?

As regards the jigs, I couldn't agree more with your comment about their expense. However, for what I do, I only needed to get the SVD-186 Gouge Jig for my turning tools, and that was it. Period. The jigs that came with my T-7 (and which also come with the new T-8) included: a terrific one for sharpening regular and tapered chisels and plane blades up to 3" wide and 3/8" thick; a gauge for measuring and setting bevel angles; a stone grader; and, a 70g tube of 3-micron honing compound. Aditionally, their 58-minute DVD and 164-page manual - both of which are extremely well edited, provide complete instructions for sharpening an array of tools, as well as maintenance advice and other tips. Why anyone would need anything else for sharpening chisels, plane irons, or bowl gouges and other turning tools is beyond me.

You're certainly right about the machine being an expensive item. To my way of thinking, it's "the cost of doing business", even though I'm no longer doing this for a living. I enjoy using high quality tools, and my Tormek is one of them.

Incidentally, a friend of mine purchased the same WorkSharp as your and his comments paralleled yours: it works, but it's not terrific. Me, I like terrific, hence the Tormek.

I haven't owned one but I used one quite a bit when I was taking woodworking classes at school. I'm not a big fan of Tormek for chisels and plane blades.

The first thing is that the Tormek is a wet system and it tends to get water around the tool when you use it - so you really have to have a dedicated space for it.

Second, it's very expensive and the jigs that you buy for it are expensive. It's very easy to have more than $1,000 invested in a machine and jigs which is an awful lot of money for sharpening. In fact, this Tormek package on Amazon is $1,700.

For chisels and plane blades, I wound up with a WorkSharp 3000. I use the WorkSharp to set the primary bevel at 25 degrees and then go to water stones to put the final bevel on. The final bevel will be greater than 25 degrees so it's a microbevel. I use a diamond plate on the WorkSharp (about $12) instead of sandpaper. Here's a discussion on my web site about how I sharpen.

The WorkSharp is not perfect - I find it somewhat underpowered - but it does the job for me. And it's only $200.

And if you buy a Tormek, you still need some stones to flatten or hone the back of the chisel or plane blade. Some people will try to tell you that you can flatten the back of a chisel on the side of the Tormek stone but I, and other people I know who have tried that, found that it did not work well.

And the Tormek wheel is generally coarse enough that you need to take it to a fine stone to finish sharpening. If the Tormek stone was fine enough for a finish, it would be very slow. They offer a leather wheel for honing but my experience is that there's too much of a jump from the wheel to the leather hone. I needed a stone to go to before going to the honing wheel.

Of course, if you plan to use it for something other than chisels and plane blades, none of the above may be useful to you.

Mike

[Harry Hall]

I have an old but barely used Super Grind 2000 I got off craigslist with a FULL set of attachments for about 25% of new. I absolutely love it.I sharpen turning tools, knives , axes, chisels, plane blades.
I eventually purshaces the BGM100 Bench Grinder Tool Rest Mount Kit , it is essential for initial shaping --i buy a lot of abused tools and rehab them starting on thr high-speed grinder , then tansfer to the tormek with the same jig setings
the thing that saves me the most time is the instant repeatability to get the same grind with the jigs. i also have 2 waterstones and 3 diamond plates for things that you do not want to hollow grind (for instance just rehabbed 2 antique axes with convex grind)....
Now that i have had the old one for 3 years i would not hesitate to buy new if I had too. If you are going to use it, it is not much money 'cause they last forever. They are surely well built.
my 2 cents
Ed

[Marty Schlosser]

Most of the serious turners I know have taken that same approach and are very happy with the results.

Get a grinder with 180 CBN wheel instead and add tormek tool rest for grinders. Very fast setup and you can grind right to the edge.

[Russell Smallwood]

Have an ancient super grind (?). Use it instead of my grinder to shape and put a new hollow grind on chisels and plane irons before taking a few quick freehand swipes on the water stones. Then I keep touching up with the stones until the hollow grind is mostly gone, then back to the tormek. I also used to use it to sharpen my planer blades before getting a PM with a helical head which was worth the price of the machine for me by itself more from a time standpoint than anything else.

As many have stated, it is slow. The dressing stone is your friend.

If you are going to get an older model, be aware that there are some significant improvements with the new T8. One in particular is the ability to keep a consistent angle between the stone and the polishing wheel via jig placement. Since I touch up everything on the water stones (and then strop), this is not a big deal for me, but I often wonder if that feature upgrade alone would eliminate the need for touching up by hand.

[Edwin Santos]

I've been very happy with the Tormek T-7 and would buy it again. In addition to setting bevel angles on plane irons and chisels, I use it for gouges and household tasks like knives and scissors, pruning shears. It's a pleasure to use sharp scissors. It even does a nice job with small kids scissors. The repeatability is a big plus. Can't say how it compares to other sharpening systems though because this is the only one I've owned.

Many of the jigs seem incredibly overpriced. For example the drill bit jig. I've been meaning to make my own simple jig to use on the Tormek for twist bits. It seems like it should be no more complicated that cutting a v groove in a piece of plywood at 59 degrees.

[Ken Schroeder]

I get tired of all of the chatter about Tormeks being so expensive. Compared with what? The Tormek is the premier wet grinder and system. It is the Baldor of wet grinders. Compared with a Baldor grinder, the same level of quality, the price is similar. And, with the jigs designed and manufactured by Tormek, it can be equally or more versatile than the Baldor.

No one uses clone jigs with the Tormek. Most of these jigs have been cloned from older Tormek jigs. Tormek has been the leader in wet grinding innovation. How many ten or fifteen year old clones are still in operation? How many clones have stainless steel shafts, standard with Tormek since 2006.

Using the magnum package price for a reference is rediculous. The package includes several jigs most userd will never use. Even buying ahead is questionable. Many of the jigs I purchased seven years ago have been redesigned and improved.

Granted, like all top of the line tools, Tormeks are priced accordingly. Let's be fair and compare Tormek with its peers, like Baldor.

[Rick Potter]

I agree with Ken.

If it had a Festool sticker, it would be even more. I have an older one and it is built like a tank.

[Edwin Santos]

I shouldn't have said that many of the Tormek jigs are overpriced.

Instead, let me say the user would need to make his/her own personal decision about how often they might use a particular jig and thus whether it is worth it for them to buy that particular jig. For example, the planer blade jig is $192 on Amazon. Let's say you have a DeWalt lunchbox planer, which costs about $400 for the whole machine, and replacement planer knives for it are about $25.00, and getting them resharpened locally is about $10, and in your situation you need to replace or resharpen them maybe once per year, I would have a hard time justifying a $192 jig no matter how good it is. In a different situation it might be absolutely justifiable. This was the point I was trying to make.

I'm a Tormek fan and would buy one again in a heartbeat if mine disappeared.

I will also say if you're inclined to make jigs in your woodworking at all, the Tormek is a great system to apply your ingenuity to do things with it beyond the Tormek branded jigs that can yield good results.

[Malcolm Schweizer]

I use the Tormek and it's an excellent tool. This comes from a picky sharpener who owns tons of Japanese Waterstones, oil stones, and diamond stones. I sharpen knives for money and I use the Tormek for that. I also use it for gouges, planer blades, and all sorts of other stuff, including a guillotine. Yes- a guillotine... but it's for cutting flower stems. I trade the florist sharpening for flowers.

There was one for sale on the classifieds for a real song. I believe it was $800. It had every accessory you could ever want. I would buy that in a heartbeat if I were you. In fact, I almost bought it so I could have one set up with the standard wheel and one with the 4000 grit waterstone wheel, but I need to maintain my marriage.

[Ken Schroeder]

I shouldn't have said that many of the Tormek jigs are overpriced.

Instead, let me say the user would need to make his/her own personal decision about how often they might use a particular jig and thus whether it is worth it for them to buy that particular jig. For example, the planer blade jig is $192 on Amazon. Let's say you have a DeWalt lunchbox planer, which costs about $400 for the whole machine, and replacement planer knives for it are about $25.00, and getting them resharpened locally is about $10, and in your situation you need to replace or resharpen them maybe once per year, I would have a hard time justifying a $192 jig no matter how good it is. In a different situation it might be absolutely justifiable. This was the point I was trying to make.

I'm a Tormek fan and would buy one again in a heartbeat if mine disappeared.

I will also say if you're inclined to make jigs in your woodworking at all, the Tormek is a great system to apply your ingenuity to do things with it beyond the Tormek branded jigs that can yield good results.

Edwin,

I agree. I have long felt the Tormek is capable of doing a lot more than is efficiently done by the available manufactured jigs. On the Tormek forum (www.tormek.com/forum) several members have devised several ingenious jigs and setting tools. We have several variations on a platform jig for sharpening very small knives (which also has worked with a machete!); we have several variations on setting tools for setting planes, knives, and chisels; we have a very simple, but effective drill bit jig. In all cases, I do not believe we have reached the full potential for the jigs and tools.

I feel like you do about the planer jig. I bought one used, and have never actually used it. I think it is a good and useful tool for someone who sharpens blades for more than one planer and jointer. In my case, I also have a four inch jointer and a Lion trimmer. The other reason to do it yourself is that you can do a better job, removing very little steel, adding a back bevel, and, for the very particular, finishing with the SJ 4000 grit wheel.

Likewise, the DBS-22 drill bit jig is pricey. No question there, however it also does a marvelous job with much versatility. I love the four facet grind.

I see tools as long term investments. Many of my tools are older than I am, some much older. The Tormek is an investment. It is more useful to me now than when I first purchased it in 2009. In my inexperience, I bought most of the jigs, some of which, like the planer jig, I have never used. If I was starting over, I would purchase a Tormek with only the jigs I would use immediately. I would add only as needed.

I would add that it is important to know the manufacturer's list price. Presently, anyone paying mire than $699 with free shipping in the continental US is being overcharged. I have seen too many examples of blatent overcharging under the guise of "free shipping". The worst offenders are online sellers. The safest place is a local dealer.

Ken